On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1862, Gen. James Blunt, commanding the Kansas division of Gen. John Schofield’s Union Army of the Frontier, heard “dull, booming” over the northeastern horizon near Prairie Grove, Ark. Blunt was waiting for reinforcements, and he knew immediately where the noise was coming from: the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Army, which had been facing him the night before, must have wheeled around his left flank to attack the approaching Union divisions under Gen. Francis Herron, before Herron and Blunt could join forces.
A Surprise Attack in Arkansas
Link here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/
MG Elkin